AN ex-Gazette reporter found himself caught up in the middle of the carnage as the terror attack unfolded at London Bridge on Saturday.

James Cox, 33, now an editor for the Sun online, was drinking in a pub at London Bridge when a van ploughed into pedestrians on the bridge.

He told the Gazette: “All of a sudden the doors burst open and a load of guys came running in.

“They were crying, saying they had been told to get off a bus and run for their lives.

“We walked up the road and the first thing we saw was people running in the opposite direction.

“It was like a disaster movie.

“Someone said ‘turn around and run’.

“We were right underneath the Shard and people were running everywhere.

“There were lights flashing, helicopters overhead, huge commotion.

“We got to the front of a restaurant called Tito’s, there was blood all over the front porch.

“Ambulances pulled up and the paramedics took a guy out of the restaurant.

“They brought him out on a stretcher, he was covered in blood - they had covered him with a sheet.

“A cabbie told me the injured man was a police officer.

“I went into the office to help out.

“We have an amazing view from the office over London Bridge.

“It was absolute chaos.

“Cordons were going up, police sirens were blaring, flashing lights were everywhere.

“People were running for their lives everywhere you looked.”

Mr Cox, who used to live in Braintree and worked as a reporter for The Gazette until 2015, said the windows of the office shook as the police carried out controlled explosions.